NAME¶

Test::Routine - composable units of assertion

VERSION¶

version 0.015

SYNOPSIS¶

The interface of Test::Routine is still open to some changes.

  # mytest.t
  use Test::More;
  use Test::Routine;
  use Test::Routine::Util;
  has fixture => (
    is   => 'ro',
    lazy => 1,
    clearer => 'reset_fixture',
    default => sub { ...expensive setup... },
  );
  test "we can use our fixture to do stuff" => sub {
    my ($self) = @_;
    $self->reset_fixture; # this test requires a fresh one
    ok( $self->fixture->do_things, "do_things returns true");
    ok( ! $self->fixture->no_op,   "no_op returns false");
    for my $item ($self->fixture->contents) {
      isa_ok($item, 'Fixture::Entry');
    }
  };
  test "fixture was recycled" => sub {
    my ($self) = @_;
    my $fixture = $self->fixture; # we don't expect a fresh one
    is( $self->fixture->things_done, 1, "we have done one thing already");
  };
  run_me;
  done_testing;

DESCRIPTION¶

Test::Routine is a very simple framework for writing your tests as composable units of assertion. In other words: roles. For a walkthrough of tests written with Test::Routine, see Test::Routine::Manual::Demo. Test::Routine is similar to Test::Class in some ways. These similarities are largely superficial, but the idea of "tests bound together in reusable units" is a useful one to understand when coming to Test::Routine. If you are already familiar with Test::Class, it is the differences rather than the similarities that will be more important to understand. If you are not familiar with Test::Class, there is no need to understand it prior to using Test::Routine. On the other hand, an understanding of the basics of Moose is absolutely essential. Test::Routine composes tests from Moose classes, roles, and attributes. Without an understanding of those, you will not be able to use Test::Routine. The Moose::Manual is an excellent resource for learning Moose, and has links to other online tutorials and documentation.

The Concepts¶

The Basics of Using Test::Routine¶

There actually isn't much to Test::Routine other than the basics. It does not provide many complex features, instead delegating almost everything to the Moose object system. Writing Tests To write a set of tests (a test routine, which is a role), you add "use Test::Routine;" to your package. "main" is an acceptable target for turning into a test routine, meaning that you may use Test::Routine in your *.t files in your distribution. "use"-ing Test::Routine will turn your package into a role that composes Test::Routine::Common, and will give you the "test" declarator for adding tests to your routine. Test::Routine::Common adds the "run_test" method that will be called to run each test. The "test" declarator is very simple, and will generally be called like this:

  test $NAME_OF_TEST => sub {
    my ($self) = @_;
    is($self->foo, 123, "we got the foo we expected");
    ...
    ...
  };

This defines a test with a given name, which will be invoked like a method on the test object (described below). Tests are ordered by declaration within the file, but when multiple test routines are run in a single test, the ordering of the routines is undefined. "test" may also be given a different name for the installed method and the test description. This isn't usually needed, but can make things clearer when referring to tests as methods:

  test $NAME_OF_TEST_METHOD => { description => $TEST_DESCRIPTION } => sub {
    ...
  }

Each test will be run by the "run_test" method. To add setup or teardown behavior, advice (method modifiers) may be attached to that method. For example, to call an attribute clearer before each test, you could add:

  before run_test => sub {
    my ($self) = @_;
    $self->clear_some_attribute;
  };

Running Tests To run tests, you will need to use Test::Routine::Util, which will provide two functions for running tests: "run_tests" and "run_me". The former is given a set of packages to compose and run as tests. The latter runs the caller, assuming it to be a test routine. "run_tests" can be called in several ways:

  run_tests( $desc, $object );
  run_tests( $desc, \@packages, $arg );
  run_tests( $desc, $package, $arg );  # equivalent to ($desc, [$pkg], $arg)

In the first case, the object is assumed to be a fully formed, testable object. In other words, you have already created a class that composes test routines and have built an instance of it. In the other cases, "run_tests" will produce an instance for you. It divides the given packages into classes and roles. If more than one class was given, an exception is thrown. A new class is created subclassing the given class and applying the given roles. If no class was in the list, Moose::Object is used. The new class's "new" is called with the given $arg (if any). The composition mechanism makes it easy to run a test routine without first writing a class to which to apply it. This is what makes it possible to write your test routine in the "main" package and run it directly from your *.t file. The following is a valid, trivial use of Test::Routine:

  use Test::More;
  use Test::Routine;
  use Test::Routine::Util;
  test demo_test => sub { pass("everything is okay") };
  run_tests('our tests', 'main');
  done_testing;

In this circumstance, though, you'd probably use "run_me", which runs the tests in the caller. You'd just replace the "run_tests" line with "run_me;". A description for the run may be supplied, if you like. Each call to "run_me" or "run_tests" generates a new instance, and you can call them as many times, with as many different arguments, as you like. Since Test::Routine can't know how many times you'll call different test routines, you are responsible for calling "done_testing" when you're done testing.

AUTHOR¶

Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶

This software is copyright (c) 2010 by Ricardo Signes. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.